Bilingualism and

Second Language
Acquisition
BUTLER & HAKUTA, (2014)

Bilingualism
Bilinguals are individuals or groups of people who obtain knowledge and use of
more than one language.
[] individuals who have native-like control of two languages (Bloomfield,
1933)
individuals who are fluent in one language but who can produce complete
meaningful utterances in the other language (Haugen, 1953) Broader
and even bilinguals are individuals who have various degrees of proficiency in
both languages (Hakuta, 1986, and others)
focus on a daily use of two languages[] (Grosjean, 1999)

Bilinguals
Butler & Hakuta (2004)

individuals or groups of people who obtain

communicative skills, with various degrees of
proficiency, in oral and/or written forms, in order to
interact with speakers of one or more languages in a
given society.

Bilinguals typologies

Variables
Folk bilinguals / elite bilinguals (language dominance, Fishman, 1977)
Circumstantial /elective bilinguals (Figueroa, 1994)
Additive / substractive bilinguals
Simultaneous

bilinguals

(Lambert, 1974) (L1= lost? Kept?)

( exposure from birth)

All these dimensions are continuous ----/----------/---------

Domains:
Traditional: 4 skills i.e. listening, speaking, reading & writing.
Others:

Real-life domains - Language instructional domains (Bachman &

Palmer, 1996)
Basic interpersonal communicative skills Cognitive/academic
language skills (Cummins, 1979)
CONTEXT determines the bilinguals alternation between 2 languages.
Alternation / interference ( Mackey, 1967)
BUT Bilinguals profile changes over time

The construct of language

proficiency
Bilingualism & intelligence

+ / relation

How to measure proficiency?

Formal linguistic view
Theoretical framework by Chomsky, 1965 (focus on syntax)
Competence-performance
Problem: ideal speaker in a homogeneous speechcommunity
variation of lge use within or across individuals was - not
considered
UG language-specific to lge NOT as part of general
cognition

The construct of language

proficiency
Cognitive/ functionalist view
language acquisition = data-driven/ part of general cognition
L2 acquisition = cognitive problem solving
aspects of lge investigated = an extension from syntax to other areas :

vocabulary

comprehension & production of oral & written lge

strategies

attention

metacognition

translation

The construct of language

proficiency
Main interest
memory)

metacognition

Ls linguistic info (how lexicons are organized & stored in

knowledge-based & control-based skills /role of

from cognitive to automatic processes

form-meaning mapping processes
attention shifts and so on
*Ls: learners

The construct of language

proficiency
Socio-cultural view
social & interpersonal communicative aspects of language
variation of language & sociological and socio-psychological aspects
(Preston,1996)
some variables studied:
linguistic environment (Dickerson, 1975)
social norms of L1 variation (Schmidt,1977)
the function of interaction ( Tarone,1983,1985), among others.
Concern: how can variation be accounted for SLA?

The age factor in L2 acquisition

Variability in attainment of L2
an important factor = the age of the learner
belief = high proficiencies in L1&L2 = balanced bilinguals
=exposure to L2 at a young age
Age = IDs variable in L2 acquisition
FLA = Birth
SLA = ? = great variation

The age factor in L2 acquisition

Effects of Age in L2 acquisition:
Route / Rate / Attainment of L2
ROUTE = not much effect = but studies are inconclusive=
problems with methodology & measurements
RATE = some evidence = adults = better than children
When? = the amount of exposure is controlled
However, other studies have reported unstructured exposure to L2
(3 mo) =
12 to 15 year-olds : most rapid progress
15 & older (adult group) = second place
3-10 (children) : last group
Snow and Hoefnagal-Hohle (1978)

The age factor in L2 acquisition

Effects of Age in L2 acquisition:
Advantage of old learners = short term
After 10 mo exposure = children were better
Is there a critical period for L2 attainment?
First proposed by Penfield and Roberts (1959)
Lenneberg (1967) : CP starts at 1 year of age = ends at puberty
Why? = brain loses plasticity (CPH).
There is NO agreement

The age factor in L2 acquisition

Agreement : decline in performance for older
learners = phonology acquisition
What is controversial
1.Is this decline attributed to biological &
neurological factors (CP)
2.Is it possible for older Ls to reach native-like
proficiency in L2?

The age factor in L2 acquisition

CP elements (Hakuta, 2001)
1.Beginning & end
2.Well-defined decline at the end of the period
3.Evidence of qualitative differences in learning (within &
outside the CP)
4.Robustness to environmental variation inside the CP
In sum = a linear decline in performance is not enough
evidence
(read studies pages 127-28)

The age factor in L2 acquisition

Domains of research so far :
1.Morphosyntactic knowledge & pronunciation
2.Other aspects of lge have not been studied
Non-biological factors
1.Socio-cultural factors = closely interrelated to age
2.NBF s can be better predictors = years of education

The interaction between L1 and

L2
In the 60s Contrastive Analysis (CA) L1 as primary influence in L2 acquisition
Background: behaviourism language acquisition as a form of habit formation
Ls L1 habits interfere with L2 habits (Lado, 1957)
In the 70s opposite view of the role of L1= minimal
error analysis showed that not all Ls errors could be explained by CA
e.g. order of acquisition similar L1 & L2, regardless of L1 background.
Interlanguage unique intermediate system that emerges during L2
acquisition
and differed from [their] L1 (Selinker, 1972)
The notion of transfer was extendedLinguists with UG approach
mechanisms

& Linguists interested in the cognitive

Transfer
Linguists with UG
approach

Linguists interested in
the cognitive mechanisms

Whether or not UG is accesible by L2 learners e.g. The Competition Model

How are L2 learners information-processing
mechanisms that function as part of their L1
can be adjusted to L2 sentence interpretation
The role of L1 interacting with input from L2

Investigation of cognitive & psychological

domains: Reading, writing, communicative
and metacognitive strategies, pragmatics.

Transfer
Ls L1 not only influences the learning of the L2 but also affects the cognitive
procedures engaged in processing the L2 (Koda, 1997).
Transfer in formal and informal contexts, among children and adults.
Language distance (L1L2) determines the learning rate.
(+distant+difficult)
Transfer+prior knowledge of the L2 (even if imperfect)
Positive (facilitation) & negative (interference) effect
Transfer can also occur from L2 to L1 cross-linguistic influence
e.g. receptive vocabulary knowledge, word recognition, reading
comprehension
The Threshold hypothesis (Cummins, 1976, 1979) academic proficiency in L1 and L2
are interdependent.
See Qs p.132

Socio-psychological factors: identity

and attitude.
-Identity & motivation are developed in a socio-cultural learning context.
-Language acquisition is embedded in societies and cultures.
-Language development = an acculturation process
Socio-psychological variables & Acculturation models
Lamberts model (1974) Ls attitude & motivations (+ aptitude) influence
degree of lge. attainment
Lge attainment influences identity (e.g.
additive/substractive bilingualism )
e.g. additive bilingualism is possible if L1 & L2 are valued in a similar way
(develop positive identity with both cultures) or else, substractive bilingualism will be
observed.

Schumann (1978) social distance between Learner + target language + culture

Research findings are mixed.

Positive attitude seems to be beneficial for L2 learning
Why mixed findings?
Different constructs of motivation - attitude
Gardner (1985) motivation and attitude different! Instrumental vs. integrative motivation
Tremblay & Gardner (1995) -Instrumental + integrative motivation in ATTITUDE
MOST IMPORTANT:

which types of motivation are strongly related to L2 performance?

Limitations: explain the relationship among variables
- Bi-directional: positive attitudebetter performance positive attitude
- positive attitude & age? How learners form attitudes?

- attitude use of L1 use of L2 ?

More research is needed